Bravo Theo – You well understood that girl in Adam Bede.1 That landscape – in which a dull yellow sandy road leads over the hill to the village, with mud or whitewashed huts with green, moss-covered roofs and here and there a blackthorn, on either side brown heather and bunt and a grey sky, with a narrow white strip above the horizon – is by Michel.2 Except that the atmosphere is purer and nobler than in Michel.
Today I’m enclosing that little book3 for you in the crate to be sent. Also Jesus by Renan4 and Jeanne d’Arc by Michelet,5 and also a portrait of
1r:2Corot, from the London News, which I also have hanging in my room.6
I don’t believe there’s any chance that you’ll be transferred to the London branch for the time being.
Don’t feel bad because you’re not finding things difficult; I have it easy, too. I believe that life is quite long, and the time when ‘another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not’7 will come of its own accord. Adieu, give my regards to everyone I know.